I am an artist. My work evolves from the reality of the photo. Both the easel work and public art murals have been based on the people and circumstances that I encounter, with both being an appreciation of the human figure. I did the US Army and UCLA’s MFA program, and spent most of the late 70s and early 80s in Chiapas State, Mexico, where I honed my skills in the hand-brushed tonal gradation style. In 1985 I received a Fulbright Fellowship in art for Mexico. This was in Mexico City, working on large murals and monotypes. I lived in the Tepito district, the Hell’s Kitchen of the capital, and saw the influence of Chicano barrio realism on the Mexican art world first hand, with young artists discovering the gritty streets of their own city. Chicano art had come full circle, with the artisanship of the Mexican craftsman taken to LA, made into the Chicano experience, and picked up by creative Mexico.
I am familiar with Central America, having done some murals in Estelí, Nicaragua, in 89-90. And with Chiapas being an extension of that experience, the 1994 Zapatista Revolution was no surprise. In 1995, I received another Fulbright, this time for teaching public art at the National School of Fine Arts in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
I just built a studio in Chiapas overlooking the Grijalva River, and live in Highland Park, the funkiest barrio in Los Angeles.
